In the case held in the US state of California, the jury found technology giants Meta Platforms and YouTube responsible for causing a young person to develop addiction and damage his mental health due to his use of social media. The decision is expected to provide guidance for many lawsuits filed with similar allegations.
At the trial in Los Angeles, the jury ruled that the companies did not take due care when designing their platforms, did not adequately inform users despite knowing the possible risks, and contributed to the plaintiff’s damage. While the court decided on a total compensation of 3 million dollars; Additional punitive damages of 900 thousand dollars were foreseen for YouTube and 2.1 million dollars for Meta. 70 percent of the responsibility was given to Meta and 30 percent to YouTube.
The case was filed by a young woman from California and her mother, who claimed that she became addicted to these platforms when she was a child. The plaintiff argued that social media use causes anxiety, body image disorder and suicidal thoughts. In the same process, Snap Inc., one of the parties to the case. and TikTok reached a settlement before the hearing.
CHANGES MAY COME TO THE AGENDA IN APPLICATIONS
It is stated that the decision may create serious compensation burdens for technology companies and may bring about changes in practices aimed at protecting young users in particular. There are currently more than 1500 lawsuits filed on similar grounds.
META AND YOUTUBE WILL OBJECT THE DECISION
Both companies announced that they would appeal the decision. While Meta argues that young people’s mental health is too complex to be explained by a single platform; YouTube, on the other hand, has defined itself as a responsibly developed video service, not a social media platform.
MAY BE A PRECEDENT FOR OTHER CASES
Experts are of the opinion that this decision may be an important threshold on the issue of “online child safety”, which has been discussed for a long time. Families and non-governmental organizations hope that the decision will pave the way for stricter legal regulations.
